Policy, not race, drives endorsements for Obama

11/7/2012, 7:31 a.m.

EDITOR’S NOTE: New America Media surveyed some of the nation’s leading ethnic media outlets and editors to see who, if anyone, they are endorsing in the 2012 presidential election. What NAM discovered is continued strong support for the incumbent. Much more interesting, however, are the reasons the media gave for their endorsement: While ethnic media editors cited Obama’s policy positions and accomplishments during his first term, issues of race or identity politics were scarcely mentioned.

Following are excerpts of endorsements taken from a variety of Latino, Black and Asian media.

The Washington Afro American: “His healthcare reform was the signature accomplishment of his administration.”

President Barack Obama is running for a second term on the strength of his health care reform, his foreign policy initiatives, job creation, the auto industry bailout, banking industry reform and passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. Among many African Americans, his healthcare reform was the signature accomplishment of his administration — providing care at a lower cost; allowing children to remain covered on their parents’ insurance plans up to the age of 26; and covering people with preexisting conditions.

We are not surprised that Obama hasn’t fulfilled a number of his 2008 promises. The mountain of uncooperative, disrespectful [and] at times insulting tactics … he has been subjected to … exceeds anything any other President in recent memory has had to endure.

We recognize that once re-elected, this environment will not likely change — at least not immediately. However, we believe that a second term itself will be a mandate that it is his vision and actions the American people support as opposed to those championed by the intractable conservative Republican blockade currently in Congress.

Vida en el Valle: “Obama deserves four more years.”

The President has shown real political backbone when it came to dealing with this nation’s worst economic crisis since the Great Depression; hunting down and killing Osama bin Laden; ending the war in Iraq and starting bring back our troops from Afghanistan; and passing healthcare reform, among other achievements. That he accomplished all of these despite the Republican obstructionists is a big credit to his role as a leader.

Job creation is on the increase, the mortgage mess is stabilizing, and the stock market has rebounded to pre-2008 meltdown levels.

Gov. Mitt Romney’s … stances on various issues have been all over the map, in his quest to paint himself as a “moderate.” It is too risky to wait until he is in the White House to know what the Republican presidential candidate would do with immigration reform, relations in the Middle East or economic stability.

New Pittsburgh Courier: “Obama is fighting for the middle-class, where the vast majority of Black people are.”

There’s a clear difference between President Obama and Mitt Romney. Obama is fighting for the middle-class and low-income citizens, where the vast majority of Black people are, whereas Romney believes in the top-down theory.

Boosting the economy for the middle-class, which will lead to more jobs, is Obama’s top priority. As proven in the Clinton administration, when the middle-class grows, so do the minority communities. There were more blacks and other minorities and women moving into the middle-class than in any other time in history.